Some thirty years later, China will finally get a new Santana. Here it is, brought to you by our friends at Carnewschina. In case it looks familiar, Carnewschina tells us that the new Santana is basically the new Jetta. The current models, holdovers from the stone age, finally can go to the junkyard of history.

Both cars are sitting on a stretched Polo PQ25 platform (see Skoda Rapid and Seat Toledo.) Like the old Jetta of lore, the new Jetta will be made by FAW-Volkswagen. The new Santana will be made, like the current Santana, by Shanghai-Volkswagen. Both cars are expected to be powered by a 1.4 liter or 1.6 liter engine, stick or auto.

Supposedly, the Chinese press is complaining that the two look too much alike. Whiners.

PS: Our special Southern Cone Correspondent Marcelo telegraphs that the Santana (so far only) will be coming to Brazil, and possibly Mexico. Someone is making good use of the tooling. Or not: Marcelo says the Brazilian version is based on the PQ24. Probably Con-Fu-Zion. We are waiting, Marcelo.

I’m going to call the first one a “Paris”. Because it looks like a stretched Yaris sedan with a B7/NMS Passat front end. I don’t know WTH the second one looks like but it’s definitely missing a VW badge on the front.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Santana and Chinese Jetta will be the same car with slightly different styling and build quality, with the Jetta (in the pictures above) being the more expensive one. Brazil will definitely get one of these two, as they need something to face the Cobalt with (the Voyage has a pathetic trunk) and Argentina and Mexico need a replacement for the Jetta MkIV (still sold at ridiculous prices).
Hopefully they build this model with the PQ25 platform in Brazil, they have NO EXCUSES this time since this will be placed above the Fox.

Not so. Jetta is bigger. The Santana will replace the Polo sedan. The one to be squeezed will be the Voyage. That will be the odd one in the line-up unless they restrict it to 1.0 form and keep bigger engines for Santana.

The PQ24 platform sounds unlikely unless there are other models being built on PQ24 at the same factory. Most likely PQ25 is more cost-effective than PQ24. But manufacturing commonality may overrule all.

Marcelo, what’s the latest on the replacement of the venerable T2 (Kombi)? Is 2014 the final death-knell for it?

We have the previous generation Polo and Polo sedan and, I believe but am not sure, 4.5th gen Golf (the one that was once exportedd to America), built on the PQ24 or variations of it. Seems that it’d cost less to build new Santana on it.

On the other hand, we have 5th generation Gol and Fox built on variation of PQ25.

We’ll see.

As to Kombi, ABS and air bags will be mandatory on all cars produced from 2014 on. Latest news I have is that VW Brasil is doing its damnest to retro engineer air bags into the Kombi. They’re testing it but it’d involve changing steering column, harness points, anchoring etc. Might not be financially feasible. No final decision taken.

Thanks, Marcelo. That’s four different cars on PQ24/PQ25! The big question may be whether VW plans to update the Brazilian-market Polo to PQ25 soon, or to the next-gen MQB-based one later.

The updated Mk4 Golf (known as City Golf up here) is PQ34, so not quite the same.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Kombi. I think the T5 Transporter is due to be replaced by T6 around the same timeframe — but the price range would surely be far higher than that of the Kombi (60+ years from the same platform!).

Hi, slight correction. The Fox is based on Polo platform (PQ24). So, only Gol on PQ25. I think it’ll be a mishmash. Brazilian makers are good at that. Palio (half uno, half punto), Punto (half Uno, half Punto), Idea the same (based on Punto in Europe, on old Palio here). As of late VW has been poaching key Fiat guys. Wonder if there’s something there?

Golf…No expert on VW but would the PQ34 be a variation of PQ24?

Have not found an answer. Will keep digging. Might be something up tomorrow.

As to Kombi, I have that sinking feeling that it’ll liveon. With a price bump justified by all the ‘new’ safet features! I mean, they managed to update the engine to keep it chugging along with the new air control legislation. Guess it’s a market too juicy to give up.

It’s interesting that you mentioned Fiat. They’ve created the scam of the century back in 2003 with the Idea: “adaptation to regional platform”. Basically it consists of taking a crappy car/platform, and glue the body and some design elements of some new European car on it (the Brazilian Idea, or course, is just a Palio MPV with the Idea body). It’s exactly what that Indian guy did by transforming his Honda City into a fake Bugatti Veyron. GM, PSA and now VW have now copied this idea, and it seems it will be quite common in the future. But I never thought the Brazilian industry would be so far behind that they would pull of this scam with a Chinese low-cost car.

Though some would say you’re being too harsh, you’re not far from the truth. Yes, it’s an improvsation, but I think the engineering provided by Fiat or VW would be several cuts above some guy working from a garage in India!

Fact is, or by greed (sueezing every last penny off of previous investments) or the fact that consumers in our markets are not so demanding, these cars find a place and fulfill a need. Lost cost or not, Logan, Santana, Grand Siena et al offer a precious commodity. Space. On the cheap.

A few years ago VW was developing a stretched PQ24 sedan, using a the-current Polo Sedan as a testing mule. Nothing has come out of that so far, but the prototype Autoesporte took pictures from back then looks a lot like the white one.

What puzzles me is that currently VW is using the Jetta as a testing mule for the new brazilian Santana, and it’s bigger than the PQ24 cars.

The Santana will be smaller than Jetta. Think Cobalt, Versa or Logan size. More on that tomorrow. But they’re using the Jetta as a shell for the ‘new’ mechanicals to throw off observers (and competitors).